PASADENA, Calif. It’s official. Team Clean is no longer an image. It’s a force. At least, Team Slipstream/Chipotle was the biggest force at the Tour of California.
The Boulder-based cycling team known most for its weekly independent testing program placed three cyclists in the top six and won the team competition as the weeklong race came to a rainy conclusion Sunday.
David Millar finished second and Christian Vande Velde third, behind Astana’s Levi Leipheimer, who defended last year’s crown, and Slipstream/Chipotle’s David Zabriskie finished sixth. A year ago, before team director Jonathan Vaughters started signing free agents in a manner befitting George Steinbrenner, Danny Pate (16th place) was the only Slipstream/Chipotle rider to finish in the top 30.
“I think it’s just confirmation of the potential of our team,” Vaughters said. “This is where we should be if we’re going to be a competitive team in the Tour de France. It’s confirmation that we’re going to live up to the hype.”
The third edition of the Tour of California was a race of attrition. Forty racers didn’t finish due to a stomach virus or crashes because of frequent rainy conditions. Sunday’s final, 93.4-mile stage from Santa Clarita, won by American George Hincapie of the fledgling U.S. team High Road, was raced in a near-constant downpour.
“I’m happy because so many things can go wrong in cycling,” Vaughters said. “You could see it this week. Somebody would crash. They’d get sick. You don’t assume it’s going to go well. You assume that this is within our potential. We didn’t make any major errors and nothing really went wrong except Tyler (Farrar) getting sick.
“We can do this.”
Millar, who joined Slipstream last year along with Vande Velde and Zabriskie to make it the top cycling team in the U.S., put it in perspective.
“The final outcome and the endgame didn’t interest us so much as finding a style of racing and creating a group that loves to work together,” Millar said. “In fact, we managed to do that. We’ve had such great fun racing. We have some young Americans who have blown me away this week with their class and heart.”
Leipheimer, who took third in last year’s Tour de France and is a Santa Rosa, Calif., resident, finished 49 seconds ahead of Millar and 1:08 ahead of Vande Velde. However, Vaughters thinks it won’t be long until Slipstream/Chipotle passes Leipheimer.
“This is his race,” Vaughters said. “He has trained for this race all winter. I think long term, I’d say within three weeks we’ll actually be better. He specifically focused on this race.”
Slipstream/Chipotle needs to show it is worthy of an expected wild-card invitation from the Tour de France. The team’s next race is Paris-Nice from March 9-16.
“Now we’re not just a cute little story anymore,” Vande Velde said. “Now there’s a little more pressure on our shoulders for the future.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
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